Andy Watson, B.C. Coroners Service spokesman, confirmed the deceased was a man in his 70s from Nanaimo, but his identity has not been released.

“I contacted the hospital about the wife of the deceased … she is still in critical, but stable condition,” said Sgt. Darrin Ramey of RCMP Central Island Traffic Services on Monday afternoon.

Ramey said witnesses told police the man pulled out from the shoulder of the highway in front of the truck.

“There’s not much more to it,” Ramey said. “We don’t believe that drugs were involved or alcohol or he was on his cell phone or anything like that. He just probably didn’t look or if he looked he didn’t see because, indeed, there was a large tractor-trailer coming down upon him.”